University of Groningen
Context matters Geiger, Josefine
DOI:
10.33612/diss.131464819
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below.
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Publication date: 2020
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
Citation for published version (APA):
Geiger, J. (2020). Context matters: Three ways of how the context influences recycling behaviour. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.131464819
Copyright
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).
Take-down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.
General
introduction
01 0 01 1
In one year, humankind produces approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of waste (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012), which can build up a mountain 3200m across and almost 2400m high (Lyons, Swann, & Levett, 2015). While the production of waste is increasing, only a small percentage of the waste produced is recycled (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). For instance, in the European Union, only 29% of the municipal waste was recycled and composted in 2012 (European Environment Agency, 2015). What happens to the rest of the waste? Most of the waste still goes to landfill sites or is incinerated, which both contributes to greenhouse gas emissions (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). Another part of the waste is disposed of improperly, resulting in littered environments and ‘waste islands’ swimming in the ocean. To reduce waste problems, recycling is important. Recycling can contribute to a circular economy by increasing resour-ce efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Cors-ten, Worrell, Rouw, & Van Duin, 2013; European Union, 2014), thereby combatting today’s waste problems and the emerging scarcity of resources (European Environment Agency, 2015). Recycling is not only a technical issue, but also a behavioural issue. Specifically, consumers who con-sistently separate the waste they produce are crucial for a circular economy (Kirchherr, Reike, & Hekkert, 2017). In this dissertation, we focus on the behavioural side of recycling. We define recycling as individuals’ waste separation
intentions and behaviours to allow ma-terials to be re-used. The main aim of this PhD thesis is to understand what moti-vates individuals to engage in recycling and how recycling can be promoted. 1
I use ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ throughout this dissertation when I refer to the authors, as the research described is the product of the collaboration between me and my PhD supervi-sors Linda Steg, Ellen van der Werff,
and Berfu Ünal.
INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL
FACTORS INFLUENCING BEHAVIOUR
What affects individuals’ recycling behaviour? The Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour (IFEP model; Steg, Bolderdijk, Keizer, & Perlaviciute, 2014; Steg, Lindenberg, & Keizer, 2016) states that both individual and contextual factors and their interaction with each other are important to consider when aiming at better understan-ding pro-environmental behaviours. Following this notion, we propose that both individual and contextual factors can influence recycling behaviour. Next to these unique relationships between either individual or contextual factors and recycling behaviour, we propose that indi-vidual and contextual factors interact in influen-cing recycling behaviour (see Figure 1). In the following, we elaborate on this reasoning. INDIVIDUAL FACTORS may explain why in a similar situation, one person recycles and ano-ther person does not. Many studies have ex-amined the effect of various individual factors on recycling behaviour, and identified a wide range of individual factors that are related to recycling behaviour, including attitudes (e.g., Schultz, Oskamp, & Mainieri, 1995), norms (e.g., Nigbur, Lyons, & Uzzell, 2010), values (e.g., Ruepert, Steg, & Keizer, 2017) and en-vironmental self-identity (e.g., Van der Werff, Steg, & Keizer, 2013a). In this PhD thesis, we first examine the relative importance of these individual factors in explaining recycling beha-viour. Next, we focus on two general individual factors that are likely to affect many ifferent
types of pro-environmental actions, including recycling: biospheric values and environmental self-identity.
Values reflect general goals that serve as gui-ding principles in people’s life (Schwartz, 1992; Feather, 1995). As desirable trans-situational goals, they reflect what individuals find import-ant in their lives which, in turn, can affect be-liefs, attitudes, norms and behaviours (Feather, 1995; Gardner & Stern, 2002). In the context of pro-environmental behaviour, biospheric values are particularly important as a consis-tent source of pro-environmental actions (De Groot & Steg, 2007, 2008). Biospheric values reflect how important individuals find it to bene-fit nature and the environment. Individuals who strongly endorse biospheric values are more likely to focus on and consider the environmen-tal consequences of their actions, and to act pro-environmentally, such as recycling (Feather, 1995; also see Steg & De Groot, 2012 for a review). Furthermore, the stronger one’s bi-ospheric values, the more one is motivated to protect the environment, and the more willing one is to put effort into a behaviour that may benefit the environment (Steg et al., 2014; Steg, 2016).
Environmental self-identity has been shown to be another important antecedent of a wide range of pro-environmental behaviours, inclu-ding recycling behaviour (Van der Werff et al., 2013a; Whitmarsh & O’Neill, 2010). Environ-mental self-identity reflects the extent to which
one sees oneself as a type of person who acts environmentally-friendly (Van der Werff et al., 2013a). The more one sees oneself as a person who acts environmentally-friendly, the more likely one is to recycle and to also engage in other pro-environmental behaviours.
The reason for this is that people are motiva-ted to act in line with how they see themselves (Van der Werff, Steg, & Keizer, 2014a, 2014b; Kashima, Paladino, & Margetts, 2014).
To sum up, we propose that biospheric values and environmental self-identity may be import-ant individual factors that can explain recycling behaviour.
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS can be defined as characteristics of the circumstances in which recycling behaviour takes place. The context may explain why one person recycles in one si-tuation, whereas s/he does not recycle in ano-ther situation. For example, a person may be more likely to recycle his or her paper waste when it is regularly picked up from the kerb than when s/he has to bring it to a paper container that is rather far away. Although relatively few studies have investigated the effect of the con-text on recycling behaviour, there is some first evidence to suggest that the context in which recycling takes place may affect recycling be-haviour (Oskamp, Harrington, Edwards, Sher-wood, Okuda, & Swanson, 1991; Schultz et al., 1995). The context has been mostly considered as a factor that can facilitate, enable or inhibit recycling. In this respect, a relevant contextual factor may be the collection system in place that may affect how feasible it is for people to recycle. For instance, a kerbside collection system is commonly considered as an easy col-lection system to use (Ando & Gosselin, 2005;
Best & Kneip, 2011), which may facilitate recy-cling behaviour. On the other extreme, some collection systems may make it very unfeasible or even impossible for consumers to recycle certain materials. In Chapter 2, we conduct a meta-analysis to study the relative importance of different contextual factors that may facilita-te or inhibit recycling behaviour in the lifacilita-terature. In particular, we examine to what extent the local circumstances (i.e., the recycling facilities in the neighbourhood, the possession of a recy-cling bin at home, the distance to a recyrecy-cling location, and the size of the neighbourhood) and the housing situation (i.e., ownership and type of house) are related to recycling.
Importantly, extending the research on contex-tual factors, we study whether the context can also affect recycling in other ways. Specifically, we test whether the context may not only fa-cilitate or inhibit recycling behaviour but may also make people focus on the environment or strengthen the effect of individual factors on behaviour. We explain our reasoning below. Additionally, we examine the interaction bet-ween individual and contextual factors. This notion is in line with the IFEP model (Steg et al., 2014; Steg et al., 2016), stating that individual and contextual factors may interact in how they influence recycling behaviour. Interestingly, how individual and contextual factors may interact has been hardly studied, with a few exceptions (e.g., Ruepert et al., 2017). In this dissertation, we aim to address this gap in literature and aim to better understand how individual and contextual factors interact. In the following, we elaborate on three possible ways of how con-textual factors may influence recycling behavi-our and how they may interact with individual factors. 014
Individual
factors
Contextual
factors
Recycling
behaviour
PERCEIVED FEASIBILITY OF
RECYCLING
The first way of how the context may influence recycling behaviour is by facilitating or inhibi-ting recycling behaviour. As mentioned above, the collection system in place may be a rele-vant contextual factor in this respect (Derksen & Gartrell, 1993; Best & Kneip, 2011; Best & Kneip, 2019). We propose that particularly people’s perceptions of the ease of using the collection system affect their recycling behavi-our rather than the collection system as such (cf. Weber, 2018). Specifically, individuals may differ in how easy they believe it is to use the same collection system. The use of a collecti-on system may be perceived as easy to use by one person, while it may be perceived as relatively difficult to use by another person. These different perceptions may result in diffe-rent recycling patterns of individuals within the same collection system.
We further propose that the perceived ease of using the collection system affects recycling be-haviour indirectly, via the perceived feasibility
of recycling, which reflects the perceived ability to recycle (cf. IPCC, 2018) and the perceived ease of recycling (Rodgers, Conner, & Murray, 2008). Specifically, the easier one perceives the use of the collection system, the more fea-sible one perceives recycling to be, which, in turn, is likely to stimulate recycling (see Figure 2). We tested this reasoning in Chapter 3, in which we study to what extent the perceived feasibility of recycling is rooted in the percei-ved ease of using the collection system. We further reason that perceived feasibility of recycling interacts with biospheric values in affecting recycling behaviour. Two theories would predict an interaction between percei-ved feasibility of recycling and biospheric values, but they propose different directions of such an interaction. First, the low-cost hypothe-sis (Diekmann & Preisendörfer, 2003) predicts a linear relationship between the effect of bi-ospheric values and perceived feasibility of recycling. According to this theory, biospheric values are more likely to be related to recycling when recycling is perceived as rather feasible (i.e., associated with low costs), and less likely to be related to recycling when this behaviour is perceived as not very feasible (i.e., associa-ted with high costs). Specifically, the low-cost hypothesis proposes that when recycling is not very feasible, even individuals with strong bi-ospheric values may not engage in recycling behaviour, as in this case they may feel it is too difficult or effortful to recycle. According to the low-cost hypothesis, individuals are more likely to act in line with their biospheric values and to recycle the more feasible recycling is perceived to be.
015
Second, the A-B-C model (Guagnano, Stern, & Dietz, 1995; Stern, 2000) predicts a curviline-ar relationship between biospheric values and recycling behaviour, contingent on the levels of perceived feasibility of recycling. Similar to the low-cost hypothesis, the A-B-C model predicts that when recycling is perceived as not very feasible, biospheric values are not likely to be strongly related to recycling behaviour. Yet, ac-cording to the A-B-C model, biospheric values are neither strongly related to recycling when recycling is perceived as very feasible, as in this case most people may engage in recycling behaviour, irrespective of the strength of their
biospheric values. This implies that the relati-onship between biospheric values and recy-cling behaviour would be most pronounced when recycling is perceived as moderately feasible (Guagnano et al., 1995; Stern, 2000; Ölander & Thøgersen, 2005). In Chapter 3, we examine the effect of the perceived ease of using the collection system and perceived feasibility of recycling on recycling behaviour, and test whether the low-cost hypothesis or the A-B-C model is more plausible in explai-ning the interaction between biospheric values and perceived feasibility of recycling.
Perceived ease
of using the
collection system
Perceived
feasibility
of recycling
Recycling
behaviour
Biospheric
values
Figure 2. Conceptual model tested in Chapter 3 on how the perceived ease of using the collection system may
promote recycling behaviour.
CONTEXT MAY MAKE PEOPLE
FOCUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT
We further propose that the context can sti-mulate recycling behaviour by making people focus on the environment. The IFEP model (Steg et al., 2014; Steg et al., 2016) states that indi-viduals who are focused on the environmental consequences of their behaviours and on be-nefitting the environment in a given situation (in the following we refer to this as ‘focus on the environment’), are more likely to engage in recy-cling behaviour. As indicated earlier, people with stronger biospheric values are more likely to be focused on the environment, and to act pro-environmentally, such as recycling (Feather, 1995; also see Steg & De Groot, 2012 for a review). Yet, the focus on the environment may also depend on contextual factors. We propose that a relevant contextual factor that can make people focus on the environment is a packa-ging design. The more a packapacka-ging design makes one focus on the environment, the more likely one should be to recycle that package. There is some evidence to suggest that de-sign can encourage pro-environmental actions (Niedderer et al., 2014; Tromp, Hekkert, & Ver-beek, 2011). Yet, not much is known about how, why and under which conditions a packaging design can stimulate pro-environmental actions, amongst this recycling behaviour. We address this research gap in this dissertation.
Importantly, we propose that a packaging de-sign and biospheric values interact – the effect of packaging design on recycling may depend on the strength of one’s biospheric values (see Figure 3). In particular, we propose that the effect of packaging design is more pronoun-ced among individuals with moderately strong
biospheric values, as individuals with strong biospheric values may recycle anyway, whe-reas individuals with weak biospheric values may generally not recycle. For individuals with moderately strong biospheric values, a packa-ging design may provide an additional push to engage in recycling. This implies that we expect a curvilinear relationship between packaging design and biospheric values (Ruepert et al., 2017; cf. Guagnano et al., 1995). We test our reasoning in Chapter 4, in which we collabo-rate with designers who design packages that aim to focus people on the environment. To our knowledge, we are the first ones who investi-gated the influence of a packaging design on recycling behaviour. Such insights are import-ant to understand the potential and to increa-se the impact of design in stimulating recycling behaviour.
Figure 3. Conceptual model tested in Chapter 4
on how a packaging design may promote recycling behaviour.
Biospheric
values
Packaging
design
Recycling
behaviour
CONTEXT MAY STRENGTHEN
INDIVIDUAL FACTORS
A third way of how the context may affect recy-cling behaviour is by strengthening individual factors. As a case of point, we examine the ef-fect of experiencing an art installation on recy-cling behaviour. We propose that art can be a powerful tool to stimulate pro-environmental actions, including recycling behaviour. A recent example of an art installation in the public space that tackles the topic of climate change is ‘For Forest’ by Klaus Littmann in the football stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria. This art installation is ba-sed on a drawing by Max Peinter that shows a stadium full of visitors observing a forest inside the stadium. For this, the artist planted a mixed forest of 300 different trees at the pitch of the stadium. With this art installation, the artist aims to confront observers with the widespread attitude and assumption that nature is taking for granted. He aims to make observers awa-re of that natuawa-re may soon be something from the past that can only be viewed in specially designated spaces (https://forforest.net/). Yet, most art installations tackling the broad topic of climate change are built on assumptions of artists on factors that may drive behavioural change (Hekkert & Van Dijk, 2014; Niedderer, 2007), which are typically not tested (Niedde-rer et al., 2014; Aryana & Boks, 2012). In Chap-ter 5, we test whether an art installation that
integrates scientific theory in the design of the art installation is effective in promoting pro-en-vironmental behaviour. In particular, we propo-se that an art installation that is designed to strengthen environmental self-identity leads to more recycling behaviour among people who experienced the art installation (see Figure 5). As discussed above, environmental self-identity is an important antecedent of consistent and long-lasting pro-environmental behaviours, in-cluding recycling (Van der Werff et al., 2013a, b; 2014a, b). Amongst others, environmental self-identity depends on past behaviours (Van der Werff et al., 2013a; 2014a). When people realize that they have engaged in pro-environ-mental behaviours in the past, they are more likely to see themselves as a pro-environmental person and are consequently more likely to act pro-environmentally in the future. We propose that experiencing an art installation in which people are, among others, being reminded of one’s past pro-environmental behaviours, strengthens one’s environmental self-identity. This, in turn, should lead to more recycling be-haviour.
In doing so, we follow a novel interdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from art and environmental psychology. Specifically, psy
Environmental
self-identity
Recycling behavior
Other
proenviron-mental behaviours
Art installation
Figure 4. Conceptual model tested in Chapter 5 on how art may promote recycling behaviour.
018
chologists explicate theories on factors driving pro-environmental behaviour to the artist, the artist embeds one of these theories in the de-sign of the art installation. Next, the psycholo-gists systematically evaluate the effect of the art installation on pro-environmental behavi-ours. Thereby, we aim to contribute to a bet-ter understanding of the extent to which, how and why art can promote pro-environmental actions. As far as we know, we initiated one of the first collaborations between designers, artists and psychologists.
CURRENT PHD THESIS
The current PhD thesis aims at better under-standing how individual and contextual factors influence recycling, with a particular focus on the role of contextual factors. The reason for this is that a systematic examination of whether, how, and under which conditions contextual factors affect recycling behaviour is understu-died in the current literature on recycling beha-viour. To address this gap, we specifically exa-mine the underlying process of how contextual factors influence recycling behaviour and how contextual factors interact with individual fac-tors, particularly with biospheric values, using different methods and different indicators of recycling.
This dissertation consists of four papers; each paper addresses a different way of how the context may affect recycling behaviour. We first conduct a meta-analysis to find key indi-vidual and contextual factors associated with recycling behaviour (Chapter 2). We expect that there has been little literature on the in-fluence of contextual factors on recycling be-haviour, and that most studies have been fo-cused on one way in which the context may affect recycling, namely whether the cont-ext facilitates or inhibits recycling behaviour. Chapter 3 builds on the results of the meta-ana-lysis and investigates how the context – the col-lection system in place – can facilitate or inhibit recycling behaviour. We argue that individuals’ perception of the ease of the collection sys-tem are crucial for individuals’ perception of the feasibility of recycling, which, in turn, should affect recycling. Furthermore, we expect that the effects of perceived feasibility of recycling on recycling depends on the extent to which
individuals endorse biospheric values.
Chapter 4 addresses a second way of how the context may influence recycling. In particu-lar, we examine whether a packaging design that makes people focus on the environment can lead to more recycling behaviour. We pro-pose that the effect of a packaging design on recycling is more pronounced among partici-pants with moderately strong biospheric valu-es.
Chapter 5 addresses whether art may pro-mote recycling behaviour by strengthening individual factors, in this case environmental self-identity. In all chapters, we do not only examine the effect of the context on intended and self-reported recycling behaviour but also on actual recycling behaviour. We thereby aim to examine whether results are consistent across different indicators of recycling behaviour. We end this dissertation with a discussion of the main findings and the theoretical and practical implications of our findings (Chapter 6).
